Title courtesy of the Rolling Stones. I'm not the biggest fan of the Stones, but I can dig their hits, for the most part. I'd go see them live, but I sure as hell wouldn't pay what they charge for a ticket.

Anyway, so my apologies again for not posting in awhile. Life has been a little crazy now that we're buying a house, and I'm sure that it will get even crazier once we finally move in. But I'll try to be good, I promise! I gave our mortgage company an entire portfolio of documentation for our application last week, and we're just waiting to get back a commitment letter from them to give to our attorney. This has got to be the most complicated thing I've ever gotten involved in. The amount of paperwork we had to generate was beyond ridiculous. I realize that its because of the current state of economic affairs in this great nation of ours, but seriously, it was a lot of stuff. A few trees definitely sacrificed their lives for the copies I had to make of every statement for every account we have that holds any amount of money over the last two months. Add in two recent pay stubs, two years of W-2's and we're talking almost 75 pages of stuff I had to give them. The best part was, because the bank statements showed deposits made before and after our wedding of sizable amounts, I had to include a signed letter explaining the deposits as wedding gifts, along with a copy of our marriage certificate and wedding invitation. The invitation. I'm serious. But all the information is in their hands, and even though we've already been approved, we just have to wait for the commitment letter. We're hoping we'll get it by the end of the week.

In other, non-house related news, the devil I allude to in the title bar has been an addiction in my household since I signed up for it after my bachelor party, at my best friend's recommendation. I'm talking about Facebook. Don't get me wrong, its a great site, that I enjoy using a lot. It is just a massive waster of time, and for as many people as it allows you to reconnect with that you want to reconnect with, there's also those people that you reconnect with, that you really have no interest in talking to ever again, but you just can't help yourself.

Let me explain, in a few examples. There was this kid that lived across the hall from me in college that was, to put it in the most simplest terms, a bit of an asshole. He was only really nice to me when he wanted something, like to play my Nintendo 64 or something. He also happened to be in another really close, current friend of mine's fraternity in college. So through that they found each other on Facebook and then the guy sent me a friend request. Now, I know I should have just denied it and moved on, but I accepted it, mostly so he could see that all was good in my life now. Shallow? A little, I admit, but what can you do? I get a lot more shallower... trust me.

Last example. By some odd coincidence, my sister-in-law's really good friend, is cousin's with the guy that Missy dated right before me. Confused? Me too, a little. Anyway, they found out about this connection last year at my sister-in-law's bachelorette party. Once Missy got on Facebook they friended each other, and whatnot. I friended her too so that she could see pictures I posted from our wedding and honeymoon and whatnot. So fast forward to about two weeks ago when I see the friend comment on her cousin's pictures of a new TV he bought. He was hugging the box in a slightly inappropriate manner, so I told Missy about it. She then sent the guy a friend request so that he could see that she was happily married now as well. So I guess the shallowness, if we're calling it that, runs through Missy and myself. So they chat back and forth a little, and in the middle of all this, completely unrelated, she gets an e-mail from her ex-boyfriend that she dated for like 5 years, about some mail he had that was hers. She replies back and the chat a little, again, she sort of rubs it in that she's married now and happy.

Fast forward about two weeks ago when Missy and I went out for wings and beer with her parents. A few too many pints of Guinness later, and Missy and I come to the conclusion that I should friend Elena on Facebook, just to see what happens. Sure enough, I send her a little message saying what's up, hope all is well with you... blah blah blah. The usual. Deep down inside, I really just want her to see that I'm happily married, I know, shallow... anyway... so eventually she accepts and comments that she's doing good, but not as well as me as she can see that I'm married and all is good. Now here's where I feel like a bit of an asshole. In chatting back and forth with her, I find out she was in a horrible car accident a few months back and has been out of commission for awhile. I'd never wish that on anyone, of course, and it really made me feel bad, for her and for friending her just so she could see I was married. Anyway, long story short, as great as Facebook is, its also evil. Like the devil.

Title courtesy of Led Zeppelin. What the hell ever happened to those rumors of their reunion tour? I'd so be on board for that, regardless of the outrageous price you know they'd charge for something like that. Although my wife might kill me, it'd be worth it, I know it.

Anyway, I apologize for the lack of updates recently. Its one of those cases of life getting in the way of everything else you'd like to do. I have to admit, its been pretty chaotic and hectic around here recently, but all in good ways, for a change. When we left off last time Missy and I were just starting to go house hunting. Well, our hunt is complete. In the past, oh, two weeks, we looked at about 10 houses, found one that we really liked, but in an offer, negotiated back and forth with the owner, agreed on a price, got the house inspected, found a lawyer, signed a contract and had the seller sign her half of the contact. So yeah, we're officially in contract to buy a house! How nuts is that? I'm pretty blown away by the whole experience as well. Its kind of hard to believe that its real and happening. But it is. We're anxiously awaiting getting our copy of the contract back so that we can start shopping around for a mortgage. Our anticipated closing date is on our around December 1, so that basically means we have until the end of the month to close. Hopefully all will go smooth with the mortgage shopping and we won't have any problems. I'm not too worried, both Missy and I have fantastic credit and secure jobs (I hope, she doesn't have to worry, she's tenured!).

I'm really excited though. The house is a great size for us, and we shouldn't really outgrow it, unless we have like 5 kids, but I don't see that happening. We got it for a great price, especially considering the neighborhood we bought in. Houses typically go for $100,000 more, easily, in that area. We got a good deal because basically the house is going to need some updating in the near future. Everything is perfectly livable with the way it is now, but in a few years things like the kitchen, and all two and a half bathrooms will need to be gutted and redone. But like I said, its totally usable now, so in a while when we have the savings, we'll redo everything. Of course even before we move in we'll do some work to the electrical, with Missy's dad's help, paint and redo the floors. Some carpets need to be replaced and supposedly there's wood floors underneath the carpet, so we're going to want to possibly redo those. And for me, the den is a nice sized and has a wall that's perfect for hanging a flat screen TV. I'm thinking a 52 inch LCD. First choice.

So that's the big news! Nothing else that's really major to report. Missy and I went to one of her good friend's wedding last night. Missy was a bridesmaid and she looked amazing in her dress and with her kind of funky, for her hairdo. The wedding was really beautiful and we had a blast, but we're both crazy exhausted today. Damn those people and their Sunday wedding! (I shouldn't talk though, I had a Sunday wedding, and I'm just kidding, it was awesome!)

And that is all for now.

Title courtesy of Jack White and Alicia Keys, of all people. They collaborated to make the theme song for the latest James Bond flick "Quantum of Solace." The song is actually pretty decent, and you should know by now that I'm a huge fan of practically everything Jack White does. They song is pretty decent, although I think the last Bond theme, "You Know My Name" done by Chris Cornell two years ago was better, this one is still good. Check out the video!

Anyway, I know Jack White is a little freaky looking, but the dude's a little eccentric, you have to cut him some slack in that respect. He's like a mad genius in my eyes, and to my ears. He's one of those guys that I would love to just have 1% of his musical talent at my fingertips, literally. His guitar playing is unreal, and, as proof, a few years ago Rolling Stone did a top 100 guitarists of all time list and he came in at 17, which I think is fitting. But I take objection to a lot of other placings on the list. Like Kurt Cobain at number 12? Don't get me wrong, the guy could write a hell of a song, but a great guitar player, he was not. Everyone below him on the list could have wiped the floor with Cobain. Like, say Eddie Van Halen at number 70? That's just wrong. And the worst travesty, to me and I'm sure a bunch of other people, is Pink Floyd's David Gilmour at number 82?! I mean, come on! Have you never listened to the guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb?" What's wrong with you Rolling Stone. And, the one thing I too the most offense with, no Pearl Jam. That was something they corrected a few years later with a cover story about the new guitar gods, which included a cover shot of John Mayer, John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Derek Trucks. Inside the article, they said that they should've included Pearl Jam's Mike McCready and Stone Gossard in the Top 100 list a few years earlier.

OK, so enough ranting about music. Its been a pretty relaxing few days around here in the good old one bedroom apartment. Its so great here that we begin our fateful journey into the land of house hunting today. We're meeting our real estate agent, who sounds awesome so far, at an open house she's doing this afternoon, and then she's going to take us to see a few places. Its all very exciting, but extremely scary at the same time. Mostly its the money aspect of it. I'm not worried that I can't afford it, not at all. What scares me is the idea that someone is willing to lend me (and I know I shouldn't say me, because Missy is on the hook for this too) almost half a million dollars to buy a home, an amount that I'll have to pay for over the next 30 years. 30 years! I'm just turning 30 in November, so the thought of paying for something for as long as I've been walking this Earth, from birth until now, is kind of scary. Hell, its not kind of scary, its full on terrifying. But I have complete and utter faith that our agent won't steer us wrong and will try to get us the best possible. Hell, the woman's daughter works with Missy and was a bridesmaid at the wedding. I think she already told her mom to treat Missy and myself just like she would her and her husband. So that's comforting.

Other than that, there is absolutely nothing to report. Our appointment to meet the real estate agent isn't until 3:45, so we'll be spending the morning and early afternoon trying to whittle down 800+ wedding photos to the 75 that we'll be putting in our album. That sounds like fun. And, there's a Ranger game on at noon. The season started yesterday with my good old Broadway Blueshirts winning 2-1 over the Lightning in Prague of all places. Pretty cool. Hopefully they can repeat today too!

That is all for now. Carry on.